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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25229962">New to Nice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastelprinceyy/pseuds/pastelprinceyy'>pastelprinceyy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wolf 359 (Radio)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Post-Finale, jacobi deserves to get better, listen, okay the jacoiffel is kinda... you gotta squint but its there, spoiler warnings for finale, this is my first w359 fic, warnings for jacobi hating himself, welcome to the author likes writing his comfort character being nice to a character he projects on</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:42:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,399</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25229962</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastelprinceyy/pseuds/pastelprinceyy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't that Daniel Jacobi hated the kindness, it was that, more or less, he didn't think he deserved it</p>
<p>Plus nose-goes, movie nights, accidental(?) flirting, and nice words.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Doug Eiffel &amp; Daniel Jacobi, Doug Eiffel/Daniel Jacobi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>68</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>New to Nice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>aaaa okay so. First time writing for W359, I just finished the finale last week.</p>
<p>I wrote this because I relate a lot to the idea of not feeling like you deserve good things. And, as usual, I projected a little too hard on my comfort characters.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoy, and remember that you deserve love!!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>           Daniel Jacobi had a long history of… less than healthy relationships. It wasn’t that all of his boyfriends (and the one girlfriend when he was figuring some stuff out) were bad people, a fact that he was fast to point out when he was asked about it, it was that he just had a certain… something about him. Something that he assumed was called “being an asshole.” So, he had owned up to the concept that he did not deserve nice things, nice words, nice anything. And he began acting like he knew he was worth something.</p>
<p>           By the time that he had found himself on the receiving side of positive attention, one that was not a half-hearted attempt at manipulation, he froze.</p>
<p>           “…earth to Jacobi?” Minkowski called out, looking between him and Eif- Doug. You see, Douglas had just used some very nice words towards the man who thought he deserved to never hear them again. It was a small comment, something not thought through about his smile and how it was hard to pay attention to Renée when he was so handsome.</p>
<p>           A comment that made Daniel’s brain short-circuit. Doug smiled when he complimented him as if complimenting his former-enemy-forgotten-and-turned-friend was something he wanted nothing more than do. After a few moments, the gears went turning in Daniel’s head again, and he realized he was staring.</p>
<p>            “You in there, Danie- “</p>
<p>           “Yeah.” He cut Doug off, nodding, “I’m here.” He looked down at the counter he was standing in front of and knocked on it. Once. Twice. Bringing himself back to the current moment. Minkow- Renée looked over at Douglas, sharing a concerned look. “Just uh… tired. What was it that you were saying, Renée?” He looked back up at the pair, his eyes flickering between the two.</p>
<p>           “Oh, uh… any ideas of what to have for dinner?”</p>
<p>           “How about- “</p>
<p>           “Eiffel if you suggest pizza one more time, I think I may never have another slice again in my life.” Minkowski cut him off, looking in the other room. “What about you, Lovelace? Any ideas?” She shouted into the living room, waiting a few seconds for a response.</p>
<p>           “No clue.” Lovelace replied, “We could order some Chinese food?”</p>
<p>           “Any objections to that?”</p>
<p>           “Sounds good to me.” They both looked over at Jacobi, waiting for him to agree or object.</p>
<p>           “I have no problems with that. I am not calling it in, though.” He tapped his finger to his nose, the other two quickly doing the same.</p>
<p>           “Does it count if she’s not in the room?” Doug said, putting his finger to his nose just a second after Renée.</p>
<p>           “Isabel, you gotta call in the food,” Jacobi called out, fully snapped out of his thoughts.</p>
<p>           “Why!”</p>
<p>           “Nose-goes. And unless your alien schtick comes with mind control, then you are the only one without a finger on your nose.”</p>
<p>           “And Hera!” They looked at each other, and then over to the communication system that Daniel and Renée had installed throughout the house.</p>
<p>           “I can’t exactly do that, Isabel,” Hera responded, her voice coming in clearly through the house.</p>
<p>           “Admit defeat, call in the Chinese food.” Doug smiled and headed into the living room before getting hit in the head with a pillow. He tried to act hurt but threw it right back at her and disappeared into the room. Renée looked back up at Daniel, smiling slightly.</p>
<p>           “Are you sure you are okay, Jac- Daniel? You seem out of it.”</p>
<p>           “You can still call me Jacobi, Renée. And I’m fine.”</p>
<p>           “You say that, but you don’t- “</p>
<p>           “I said I’m fine.” He snapped, sighing.</p>
<p>           “Alright. Alright. Just let me know if you need anything.” She gave him another once over before leaving the room to join the rest of the crew- the household, Jacobi reminded himself.</p>
<p>           It had been a few months since they returned to Earth. After a short medical examination by the folks at the now-mostly-destroyed Goddard Industries, they were given their lives back. Death certificates were rescinded, apologies made, and funerals held. By all accounts, Jacobi told himself he was the least affected by this. Minkowski had to go to court and get divorced from her husband (he’d moved on, assuming his better half was dead). Eiffel had to re-learn his whole life. And Lovelace… was still figuring out who she was. All that Jacobi had to lose he already lost when they left the Hephaestus, the lone survivors of the (now legally non-existent) catastrophe. He went to his friends' funerals and tried to make peace with the ghosts that remained.</p>
<p>           “You joining us, Daniel?” Eiffel leaned his head into the kitchen, freezing as he looked over at Jacobi.</p>
<p>           “Yeah… yeah give me a- “</p>
<p>           “Daniel, what’s wrong?” Eiffel said, walking into the kitchen. Jacobi picked his head up from his hands to say that everything was just peachy when he noticed a tear fall from his eye.</p>
<p>           “Nothing.”</p>
<p>           “You are crying.” He whispered this, stepping closer to Jacobi.</p>
<p>           “Just really excited about Chinese food.”</p>
<p>           “Please?”</p>
<p>           “I’m. Fine. Eiffel.”</p>
<p>           “No, you aren’t.”</p>
<p>           “Why do you care!” Jacobi raised his voice, immediately regretting it. Eiffel was just… Doug was just trying to be nice to him, and he couldn’t even care about it.</p>
<p>           “Because I care about you.”</p>
<p>           “You shouldn’t. I really- “</p>
<p>           “Yeah yeah, ‘Oh Doug, I followed orders that I had no other option, and that makes me evil.’ Daniel, please. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t care.”</p>
<p>           “I don’t doubt that you care. I just…” He gestured vaguely, ignoring the bubbling feeling of guilt in his chest. He looked up at Doug and sighed. He stood there, waiting for a response.</p>
<p>           It was the sympathy in his eyes that really killed Jacobi. Same reason why he choked on his spit when Douglas complimented him. This man, despite everything he heard and learned about Jacobi, cared for him. Liked him. Sympathized with him. And Jacobi had no clue why.</p>
<p>           The first few times Eif- Doug- was nice to him, Jacobi shoved it off because he couldn’t remember what happened, what he did to the crew. But even as he learned more about their checkered past, about the coups and counter-coups and the death and threats, Doug still treated him like he was a good person. Hell, the man had even flirted with him once or twice. Or, did what Jacobi <em>assumed</em> was flirting.</p>
<p>         Retrograde amnesia was one hell of a thing. He assumed after a few times that it was just how Doug was.</p>
<p>         “Is it okay if I hug you?” Doug asked, whipping Daniel out of his thoughts. He realized the pair had been standing there for… almost a full minute, just looking at each other. Daniel opened his mouth to give some sarcastic remark, closed it, and nodded. When Doug wrapped his arms around him, it was the last crack in his emotional dam, and he started crying. Doug held him close, mumbling ‘it’s okay’s under his breath while Daniel shook in his arms.</p>
<p>         “Why…” He sighed after a few minutes, “Why are you nice to me? You know what I… I did.” Doug shrugged, keeping his arms wrapped around him.</p>
<p>         “Can’t say no to a pretty face?” He joked, getting a snort in return from Jacobi. “Because…” He pulled away from the other man, “You deserve kindness. Hell, from the tapes I heard- None of us were the best people. I mean- I almost froze to death for stealing toothpaste and causing a mutiny. Yes, you’ve told me what you did, but Isabel also told me that you saved our asses and only <em>almost</em> blew yourself up in the process.”</p>
<p>         “I was just trying to save my ass- “</p>
<p>         “Then why did you look like you had been beaten into a pulp when I first saw you?” Jacobi rolled his eyes at this, but he could still feel the ribs that were broken from Riemann’s vicious kicks. “Face it, you aren’t a bad guy.”</p>
<p>         “I don’t know if I can believe that, Eif- Doug.”</p>
<p>         “You can still call me Eiffel, you know.” Jacobi shrugged, wiping at his face slightly. After a few moments, he nodded.</p>
<p>         “Uh.. thanks for this.” Doug nodded, Jacobi looking him in the eyes again. They both smiled, and Jacobi wrapped his arms around him for another hug.</p>
<p>         “I didn’t realize you liked hugs this much.”</p>
<p>         “Eh.” Jacobi mumbled, “Only from you. They’re nice.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please let me know what you think in the comments, I hope I did these characters justice.</p>
<p>Have a fantastic day/night, y'all.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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